Lanaya the Templar Assassin is a very short-ranged Agility hero capable of dealing huge bursts of Physical damage to swathes of enemies with expert positioning and timing. Unlike most physical damage dealers, Lanaya reaches her damage potential quite early and then scales up from that point with carry items, letting her gank with impunity throughout the mid-game, and her short attack range increases from being comparable to that of a melee hero to a ranged hero with short reach as she levels Psi Blades.

Her Psionic Traps provide map control and the ability to chase down fleeing heroes from up to 2000 range, and Refraction and Meld lets you shrug off high-damage nukes and disjoint projectiles. With a Blink Dagger, Lanaya can quickly materialize in the enemy team's weakest flank and shred several heroes at once with her Meld and Psi Blades.

Lanaya, the Templar Assassin, came to her calling by a path of curious inquiry. Possessed of a scientific bent, she spent her early years engaged in meticulous study of nature's laws--peering into grimoires of magic and alchemy, recreating experiments from charred fragments of the Violet Archives, and memorizing observations of the Keen recordkeepers. Already quiet and secretive by nature, the difficulty of acquiring these objects further reinforced her skills of stealth. Had she been less retiring, she might have become notorious among the guilds as a thief-scholar. Instead her investigations led her into far more obscure corners. As she devoted her furtive talents to unlocking the secrets of the universe, she instead unlocked a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple. The intelligences that waited beyond that portal, proved to be expecting her, and whatever mysteries they revealed in the moment of their discovery was nothing compared to the answers they held out to Lanaya should she continue in their service. She swore to protect the mysteries, but more to the point, in service to the Hidden Temple she satisfies her endless craving for understanding. In the eyes of each foe she expunges, a bit more of the mystery is revealed.

Templar Assassin conceals herself, becoming invisible as long as she remains still. If Meld's invisibility is broken by attacking an enemy, Lanaya will deal bonus damage to the enemy and reduce their armor for 10 seconds.

Templar Assassin places mystical traps that invisibly monitor enemy movement. When sprung at her command, they exert a slowing influence of 30% in the area. Traps charge up to slow an additional 5% every second, up to 50%.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0

Cast Range: 2000

Maximum Traps: 5/8/11

Min Move Speed Slow: 30%

Max Move Speed Slow: 60%

Slow Duration: 5

Trap Duration: Permanent

11/8/5

15

Slow persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Modifiers

Trap Slow: Dispellable with any dispel.

Calling upon the reach of the Hidden Temple, none escape the eye of the Templar.

Notes:

The traps only slow enemies when they get triggered, not when they are destroyed by attacks, or by exceeding the maximum allowed traps count.

The slow starts at 30% and increases by 0.75% in 0.1 second intervals, resulting in the following amounts on each second after placement:

Magic Stick can help Lanaya out a lot when facing heroes which spam their abilities. The instant health and mana restore can turn around the outcome of a fight when used properly.

Core Items:

Power Treads are a good choice of boots upgrade for Templar Assassin, as it provides a bit of everything she needs: health, damage, attack speed and mana. If an aggressive approach is desired, Phase Boots should be considered instead.

Magic Wand makes use of the branches and the Magic Stick from earlier and has a stronger potential heal burst.

Blink Dagger is essential to reach Lanaya's maximum potential. Although she is technically a ranged hero, her base attack range is similar to that of a melee hero. A Blink Dagger allows her to get in range to attack enemies and land her Meld attack, or to catch up to enemies slowed by her Psionic Trap. In teamfights, it helps her to position herself to use the full potential of Psi Blades. On the other side, it is also a great escaping tool when combined with her spells. Refraction prevents the dagger from getting disabled, but if it does get disabled, Meld can help her hide for a moment and then blink out if the enemy has no True Sight or area spells.

Desolator increases Lanaya's damage output immensely, since Lanaya only deals physical damage by default (besides Psi Blades). The armor reduction of Desolator fully stacks with that of Meld, allowing her to reduce up to 15 armor on a target. This results in a highly increased damage output, which then translates into higher damage with Psi Blades, since their damage is based on what the initial attack target received. On top of this, Desolator also grants a decent raw attack damage bonus.

Town Portal Scrolls are an item every hero should carry around, especially aggressive heroes like Templar Assassin. Combined with a Blink Dagger, it can ensure a safe escape.

Situational items:

Black King Bar may be required to deal with disables. Although Refraction helps her from taking any kind of damage, it does not stop disables. If avoiding their disables with blink or Meld is not possible, a Black King Bar should be bought.The item also grants some raw damage and a bit of health, increasing her damage output and survivability further.

Assault Cuirass, similar to Desolator, synergizes well with Lanaya as it reduces enemy armor and increases her attack speed, upping her damage output by a massive amount. Besides that, the additional armor compensates for her squishiness. The armor bonuses and reductions of it are also auras, making it a valuable contribution to any teamfight.

Heart of Tarrasque allows Lanaya to fight for much longer, as it gives an enormous health boost. However, it should only be bought after having built up some damage first, because being tanky does not help her much when she deals little damage.

Butterfly is always a great item for every agility hero, as it increases attack damage and speed by a lot and also provides evasion, helping against enemy attacks. The evasion also synergizes very well with Refraction, as Refraction does not lose any of its damage block charges when Lanaya evades attacks.

Manta Style can be considered on Templar Assassin if some extra push power is required. If one has quick reflexes, its active can also be used to disjoint enemy attacks and spells. It also provides decent stats and grants some mobility. Keep in mind though that, despite her melee-like attack range, Templar Assassin is still a ranged hero, so the ranged illusion values and cooldown are used.

Daedalus is a great item on Templar Assassin, since a critical strike is spread to all enemies with Psi Blades. It also works extremely well together with her high amount of armor reduction from her ability and typical item choices. However, since it is a chance-based effect and is based on her attack damage, other damage increasing items are required first to unlock its high potential.

Dragon Lance gives Lanaya higher range and a good amount of stats that she needs early-mid game: Strength for health and Agility for armor and damage. The increased attack range also allows Lanaya to perhaps skip a few points on Psi Blades and focus on maxing out Meld after Refraction instead. Afterward, it may be disassembled to be turned into a Black King Bar, or kept and upgraded into Hurricane Pike, giving Lanaya a second mobility item with Blink Dagger, and its active gives Lanaya four possibly unavoidable attacks from any range.

In DotA, Templar Assassin makes numerous references to the game Starcraft, another famous RTS game by Blizzard. Her ability to manipulate psionic energy, the psi blades she wields, and the mention of her master being originally from Aiur in her DotA biography all apply to the Protoss, one of the three main races of the game.

Although Templar Assassin is a ranged hero, she has a 140 base attack range. This means her attack range is the shortest of all heroes, as melee heroes have an attack range of 150.

Templar Assassin's rare response upon snapping a trap, Play "It's a trap!" is a reference based on Star Wars' Admiral Ackbar's quote on Return on the Jedi.

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